Cardiac A-vest

Saving lives one heart beat at a time.

Why Cardiac A-vest?

The Problem

Every year, nearly 600,000 people suffer from cardiac arrest, with less than 71,700 surviving to tell the tale. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is essential to save a victim from the fatal consequences of cardiac arrest which occurs when a person’s heart stops beating. Human administered CPR can be complicated for many reasons. During CPR, the provider manually pumps the cardiac arrest victim’s heart, a process which is nearly as tiring as it is vital to the victim’s survival.

In a study taken from the National Institute of Health, it is recorded that after only 1-3 minutes of performing CPR, the rescuer experiences fatigue and their compressions significantly decline in efficiency. Additionally, Human-provided CPR prevents the rescuer from helping in other areas at the scene of the emergency and increases the difficulty of victim transport.

The Solution

Cardiac A-vest by Stayin’ Alive saves lives by doing the work for you. It does this by providing automatic compressions to the victim. This eliminates the hazard of provider fatigue, the danger of complications regarding transporting the victim, and a lack of medical personnel. Cardiac A-vest simply straps around the victim’s torso and is currently designed to fit and perform compressions on anyone who is able to receive adult CPR (ages 12+). Cardiac A-vest has a unique way of performing compressions using a mechanism that is lightweight and easy to transport. Not only does Cardiac A-Vest provide compressions, but it also checks the victim’s pulse and automatically stops, sounding an alarm if the victim has been resuscitated. After stopping compressions, Cardiac A-vest continues monitoring the victim’s pulse until it is turned off by a provider. If the victim relapses into cardiac arrest, the device will once again provide compressions until the victim has been revived. Cardiac A-vest alerts a nearby medical professional when mouth to mouth breaths are required, with a beeping alarm. Using this method, Cardiac A-vest has the potential to save the lives of those who have fallen victim to the third largest cause of death.

Background Research

The Need

Cardiac A-vest is used when a victim experiences cardiac arrest. A medical professional can quickly take out the vest from a nearby place, strap it onto the victim’s torso and turn it on. Cardiac A-vest can be implemented by EMTs at emergency scenes, allowing them to easily transport the victim, or to attend to other tasks on the scene. It can also be used by military paramedics at the scene of a crisis to help them attend to their many urgent tasks. When someone is in need of CPR, it is vital that it is provided correctly and continuously; human providers fail to do so after a short amount of time. After analyzing and reviewing Cardiac A-vest, Mr. Yehuda Greenberg, who is an EMT, BLS instructor, and Hatzolah member observes:

“This Device is so easy for Medical Responders that if it was used with an AED it could save lives. CPR quality diminishes very quickly, but a machine such as Cardiac A-vest, does not get tired. Cardiac A-vest is very easy to transport, unlike many other products, which is very helpful as emergency medical scenes are always on the go.”

With 475,000 cardiac arrest induced deaths in America according to the American Heart Association, lifesaving breakthroughs are important. Cardiac A-vest has the potential to greatly improve the cardiac arrest survival rate.

Design and Methodology

Construction

The vest consists of a piece of cloth that wraps around the victim and is secured by velcro with adjustable velcro shoulder straps. A valve opens and closes to allow a pump to inflate and deflate a balloon, effectively creating compressions. A pulse sensor, secured to the finger by a finger splint checks the victim’s pulse periodically so that Cardiac A-vest can respond accordingly. Using an alarm, the device notifies medical professionals when necessary.

Bill of Materials and Cost

Full Materials List

Schematic and Wiring Diagram

Physical Schematic

Full Physical Schematic

Wiring Diagram

Full Wiring Diagram

Code and Flow Chart / Operations

Full Code

Market Research

Existing Products

Cardiac A-vest is unique from other competing products in several ways. Competing automatic compression devices, such as AutoPulse and LUCAS, fail to monitor the victim’s pulse. Because of this, a medical professional must constantly be checking if the victim has regained their pulse. Cardiac A-vest stops once the victim regains their own heartbeat. This is important because an artificial pumping rhythm interferes with a person’s natural heartbeat and is not recommended. The device’s system that checks for a natural pulse is also helpful because during manual CPR, it is recommended that the provider doesn’t stop to check for the victim’s pulse in order to avoid interrupting chest compressions. While medical professionals have deemed this worth the risk, Cardiac A-vest completely eliminates this risk by checking for a pulse without interrupting chest compressions. Additionally, Cardiac A-vest’s lightweight and easily transportable compressions method helps it stand out from competitors.

Lucas (left) and Autopulse (right), both competing compression devices

Discussion

Future Work / Improvements

In the future, Cardiac A-vest can connect to an app via WiFi. The data recorded on this app can enable medical professionals not currently on the scene to monitor the victim. It can also be used for a medical evaluation of the cardiac arrest victim. Further down the line, Stayin' Alive would like to implement a breath component to the system to make the entire CPR process automatic. Additionally, a premium version of Cardiac A-vest is compatible with AEDs, which are devices that provide shocks to start up the heart again, and are often used on cardiac arrest victims.

Process / Procedure

How we came up with our idea: Two of our group members had been CPR certified so they understood first hand the exhaustion behind providing chest compressions. This inspired us to find a less tiring and safer method of performing CPR. Since it is medically preferred that cardiac arrest victims don’t receive compressions once they have been revived, we designed a compression device that stops the in response to a pulse.

Finding a method of creating chest compressions: We discussed several approaches to effectively create chest compressions. Our first design used wood to compress the chest. We decided against this method because we felt it would be too rough and could hurt the cardiac arrest victim. We considered using a solenoid to create compressions, but decided against it because we would need to use a bulky solenoid in order to achieve enough force for the compressions to be effective. We ultimately decided to use an air compression system, because we thought it was the most practical for our prototype, and the most likely to be effective in real life.
Designing our air compressions system: We didn’t want our inflatable component to have to fill up more than necessary for each compression, so we decided that once Cardiac A-vest is turned on, the pump would stay on for the duration of the device’s use. This way the inflatable component could maintain a base level of air so that it doesn't have to refill completely for every compression, allowing compressions to happen faster. Once the inflatable device is partially filled, it begins to face resistance and cannot be filled up further unless the valve on it is closed. Closing the valve allows the inflatable device to fill up the rest of the way, effectively creating a compression. Once the compression is complete, the valve opens again and the inflatable component returns to its baseline amount of air. Because we used this method of creating compressions, we needed to create a separate entrance and exit for the air, so we attached two tubes to our inflatable device, attaching one to a pump and one to a valve.
How to determine if the victim regains their pulse: We needed to find a way to check the victim for a natural pulse, because compressions provide the victim with an artificial pulse. For this reason we decided that we would only analyze the readings of the pulse sensor when the compressions pause for human provided resuscitation breaths, which are necessary according to the American Red Cross. At that point no unnatural pulse is being provided for the victim, so if the victim has a pulse then they must have been revived.
The alarms: The alarms were a later addition to our device. This way medical professionals are alerted when they are needed and focus on other tasks in the meantime.
The shape of the vest: Our original thought was to have the vest be a fabric that wraps around the cardiac arrest victim’s torso. However, we later added straps because we thought it would help better secure the device on the victim's chest and ensure that it wouldn’t shift if the patient were to be moved.
Putting it all together: As it turned out, most of the materials that we originally decided to use were household items, so we were able to build Cardiac A-vest similarly to as planned. However, the discrepancies between the materials list and the pictures of the device itself are due to a lack of resources brought about by Covid-19.

Reflections

Looking back at the end of this capstone project we realize that it was definitely a unique learning experience. We not only had to do most of our project from three separate locations but we also didn’t have access to all of our ideal materials. For example, instead of using a solenoid valve we improvised by using a finger to represent the solenoid valve opening and closing. The most important lesson that we learned is the value of teamwork and how if you have a cohesive team then you can accomplish your goal, whether or not you are physically together.

Near the end of our project, we asked our peers to give us feedback on how we can improve our presentation. A peer suggested that we add more information from our brainstorming process to our website, and we took their advice. We also adjusted certain aesthetic aspects of our video in response to feedback.